This invention relates generally to off-road motor vehicles, such as tractors, and more particularly, to a lighting control system for selecting the illumination of individual lights arranged around the perimeter of a tractor.
Off-road vehicle manufacturers, including the manufacturers of agricultural tractors, are faced with the problem of controlling the headlights and the working lights arranged around the perimeter of the tractor with switches that meet worldwide standards established to define appropriate specifications for the use and location of such lighting control switches. Such lighting switches should be easily understood and provide the operator with the flexibility of choosing the desired lighting arrangement for the particular task or operation being conducted. Such lighting control switches should be flexible enough to allow the operator to change easily the combination of lights being illuminated to correspond to the chosen task.
Agricultural tractors are typically provided with an instrument cluster containing gauges displaying the operation of the engine and other operative functions of the tractor. With the utilization of electronics, the instrument cluster is capable of receiving input from remote sensors and calculating pertinent information for the operator, such as the numbers of acres covered over an increment of time, through the use of a microprocessor which incorporates a nonvolatile memory for storing certain constants used in the calculations. This nonvolatile memory can be used various electronic functions and is available for use in conjunction with the lighting control system.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a lighting control system that would provide a selective illumination of the various lights arranged around the perimeter of the tractor for different operative functions.